4784. About devils who labor in every possible way to excite adulteries

I was being led in a wakeful vision, and along the way passed by the hell of those who strive in every way and method to twist, invert, and stamp out the things that belong to marriage love and bring in things that belong to adulteries. They acted almost like demons but were cunning spirits, positioned in hiding, noticing every least bit of thought and feeling. And they were constantly trying to twist these into lascivious adultery, silently persuading and in this manner convincingly introducing the thought that it is better than what is in marriage. I was amazed how they could notice all the least bits of thought and lead them away from truth and goodness, corrupt them, and then invert and extinguish them pursuing the goal they had set for themselves, and how they were able to do this continuously. After this they entered into the spiritual life itself, of which a person is not aware.

[2] But they did this in vain because I was protected by the Lord. The ways they have of twisting and inverting things cannot be described because they took place in the spiritual realm. They took place through a speech consisting of mental images, that is to say, through mental images, which are such as are not noticed by a person because many images form the single mental image that is expressed by words, or a single word. Less [noticed are] the feelings within these, which are the life of these spirits, that is to say, the life of the mental images. From these things, as I see it, it can be established as a fact that a person who has experienced the delight of adultery only a single time, which was their goal, can scarcely ever be withdrawn from it and reject it; and that no one could ever resist unless he is protected by the Lord, because they exercise an effect on the life within human thought, close to it and yet somewhat more inwardly, so that a person could never notice it. I myself could never have done so unless, enlightened by the Lord, I had known how to speak and think with spirits and thus been able to perceive the nature of their ideas from their affections.